Fore River Bridge opening less, still causing headaches

After three years of steady increases peaking at 703 openings in 2008-2009, the number of openings dropped to 511 for 2009-2010, according to numbers from the state Department of Transportation. The downward trend is continuing this year when the state expects a total of 426 openings.

It won’t come as much comfort to commuters stuck in traffic, but the number of openings at the Fore River Bridge has dropped by more than a fourth in the past two years.

After three years of steady increases peaking at 703 openings in 2008-2009, the number of openings dropped to 511 for 2009-2010, according to numbers from the state Department of Transportation. The downward trend is continuing this year when the state expects a total of 426 openings.

The bridge is scheduled to go up at 8 a.m. Monday, July 11, to let an oil tanker pass, halting Route 3A traffic for 15 to 45 minutes.

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If the state’s projection for this year holds, that would be the lowest number of openings in five years.

But some commuters say that doesn’t match what they see day to day.

“I don’t believe it,” said Donald Brennan, owner of Cigar City just south of the bridge in Weymouth. “It opens for the smallest boats and it just stops everything.”

Brennan lives in Quincy and crosses the bridge twice a day.

On average, openings last about 21 minutes, but can take as long as 45 minutes.

Mike O’Dowd, the state’s project manager for plans to replace the existing bridge, said it’s difficult to pin down exactly why the number of openings is falling. He said it could just be fewer tankers, barges and other ships heading in and out of the river.

Fewer mechanical problems with the aging bridge could also mean fewer openings to test and maintain it, though O’Dowd said the numbers for the past two years could have undercounted the openings for maintenance and repairs.

“It’s difficult to say from one year to the next as to whether or not there will be a similar number of openings,” he said. “I can’t say for sure what it’s attributed to.”

The biggest declines in openings were for barges, miscellaneous commercial vessels, which include car carriers, and for maintenance and testing.

Page 2 of 3 - Various parts of the Fore River Shipyard were also going through construction or demolition in recent years, including the construction of an auto parts warehouse by Daniel Quirk, owner of Quirk Automotive Group, in 2010, and the removal of the Goliath crane in 2008, which could have boosted trips past the bridge.

Records of the openings are recorded by hand in a ledger at the bridge. The records aren’t kept in electronic form, O’Dowd said.

The state plans to replace the existing vertical lift bridge with a new structure similar in design. State planners say their plan will reduce the number of openings by another 20 percent, but neighbors are pushing for a drawbridge similar to the one that was torn down in 2004 and have questioned the state’s numbers.

The bridge is staffed by two state contractors at all times. Once a ship requests the bridge be opened, those contractors can’t refuse under maritime law, O’Dowd said. Ships coming from foreign countries are checked by U.S. Customs officers once they dock in the river.

Openings can be especially irksome when they come during rush hour, said Dennis Dunn, who takes the bus from his home in North Weymouth to Quincy Center each morning.

“The amount of people it inconveniences and the amount of fuel wasted while people sit there idling is just astounding to me,” Dunn said. “It just ruins everybody’s day.”

The state posts information about openings on message boards on either side of the bridge and online, and through email alerts that commuters can sign up for.

The Patriot Ledger also provides an email notification service of bridge openings.

But residents say that information is often inaccurate and can mean getting stuck on the wrong side of the bridge.

Becky Haugh, who also lives near the bridge, said she recently got stuck on the Quincy side on her way to pick up her son at daycare when the bridge opened 20 minutes ahead of schedule.

“That’s my major concern as a resident and a parent,” she said. “The signs aren’t accurate and they don’t update them. I don’t understand in this day and age how they can’t update the signs more accurately.”

On Thursday, a notice went out saying the bridge would open at 5 p.m. By 5:45 p.m., it had not gone up. On Friday, it did not open when it was scheduled to at 2:30 p.m. An electronic sign at the bridge said another opening was scheduled for 4 p.m.

O’Dowd said the state is working on improving methods of notifying residents and commuters about openings.